Monday, June 13, 2011

6/13/2011

I feel kinda odd right now... words can't quite express it...

I love this place so much. In church yesterday, President Jackson surprised me by having me bear my testimony in sacrament meeting. In my testimony i revealed that i was going flying away on Wednesday and was returning home. Everybody's jaws dropped. It was a neat exerience to share my testimony one last time with these great people. I love the members here more than most things in the world. They're so humble and genuine it's amazing. I sat there pondering in church just what this next week would be like and it was just too weird. This past week was a sure grinding one, trying to finish strong and keep going, luckily we really did have a good week. President Jackson is crazy awesome. He took 2 hours with us each day for 3 days and we went tracting, just trying to find some families to teach. We didn't have much success but the fact we were out there with him that long was absolutely amazing. If all members of the church were like that we'd see some amazing things happen in the world.

I had a couple questions actually. Things i'm bringing home include pepper sauce, mauby syrup, a cutlass, etc... Is there anything you would like me to buy and bring with me? I don't know what kind of things you'd like. I'm getting a haircut tomorrow, doing some last minute shopping, and seeing all the members i can to say goodbye. Today is a holiday here in St. vincent, "Whit Monday". The branch right now is having a big fun day with food, drinks, games, sports, etc. They're having a blast. The internet shop lady that we go to every week opened just for us so we could email our families. She's 30 bucks richer and we are happy. Haha.

Elder Bharat is staying in Calliaqua (unless he complains to president), Elder Winzenried is training a new missionary in Kingstown 2, and Elder Jensen is staying to have a new ZL come to St. Vincent. Pretty cool if you ask me. To answer your question, i love our apartment.... a lot. We can open our back door and watch the sun set over the ocean, or the moon over the ocean, or the waves on the ocean.... Can you tell i'm going to miss the ocean? It's just a beautiful apartment, and one of the cheapest in the mission.

This past week was pretty fun, Gracie whom i have told you about, told us that her son caught 2 iguanas and asked if we wanted to buy them. I jumped at the opportunity, bought myself to big iguanas for about 15 dollars USD, and it was way cool. Gracie cooked them up for us and they tasted way good. Was like a fish mixed with chicken. It still had its skin on it and it was weird, but still good. Church was great, a lot of members came and it was a good week for Calliaqua. Brother Woodward, who was baptized about a month or 2 ago, was given the aaronic priesthood yesterday. I felt the spirit strong and i felt like i actually helped in his conversion. It was good to see someone with whom you spent so much time, take that step and receive those blessings. They're a fun family.

This morning we took one more day on the beach. We played some short games of cricket and just enjoyed the beach once more. Nothing like it at home. the Salt lake doesn't count.

To answer some questions from last week, I LOVE breadfruit. What they do here with it, they take it and put it in the fire and roast it for about 20-30 minutes. Then it gets soft on the inside and it's way good with like stewed chicken or something like that. Stew chicken is not like a stew you make and put in the oven by the way... it's a lot different! I"ll show ya later. My favorite fruits here are wax apples, mangos, plumrose, pineapples, and that's about it. I love soursop too. Way good. They have a lot of provisions here, like edo's, plantains, green figs, sweet potatoes, dashin, irish potatoes, etc. I love them all but sweet potatoes and dashin is my favorite. Dumplings are found a lot in their soups. We drink about 1 or 2 coconuts a day, they're delicious.

I don't know what else to say. I"m trying to record all my thoughts, feelings, and impressions daily, and when i return home i'd like to write down a bunch of stuff about each place i've been, maybe you can help me with that, but i've noticed i don't have a good memory for details. journals are way important. i've filled up 4 by the way..

I just want to say THANKS for everything you do for me. I can't believe this is the end. It's been quite the crazy rollercoaster and i'm excited to talk to ya'll about it. It seems like when you get at this point, you're alot more sensitive to the spirit and you feel some pretty crazy feelings. I am gonna bawl leaving this west indies. I can't imagine serving anywhere else. You NEED to meet these people i've served for 2 years!

Monday, June 6, 2011

6/6/11

Hello!

Things went pretty good this past week. We did a lot of service and worked pretty hard at making sure our recent converts stayed.. converted. Haha. President Gamiette gave us a challenge when we were in Trinidad that all those going home should not speak of it with members, and limit it with other missionaries. So I haven't told anyone that i'm leaving next week. Not telling anyone until Sunday after church. Weird i just have 1 more sunday here.

As per the work, our "progressing" investigators didn't come to church, but we saw a lot of good things happen. There's a family here, the mcdowald's, who are just an awesome family. They're struggling with basically everything but they're way fun. Saturday they helped us plan an activity to watch the new joseph smith: prophet of the restoration movie. So we got everything ready, and they brought some neighbors and some othe rmembers were there. It was way fun. I felt the spirit way strong and i know everybody else did as well. One of their neighbors was in tears and didn't want it to end. (she has never been interested previously.) Basically it was a good experience for the family and it strengthened their testimony a lot (and mine too.. haha) I felt such a strong feeling for those pioneers and early members of the church. Couldn't imagine going through things like that...

Next week i'll be there with ya'll. That feels way weird. We gotta plan a trip back here. I can already tell i'm going to miss it here way bad. I love these people. This week we got to help Gracie (picture of her included - the one with the sombrero) cut down the bush on her land that she's minding. We took some cutlasses and chopped away for 4 hours. It was really fun and she cooked some good food to eat when we finished. Today we went to the Owia Salt Ponds. We didn't swim don't worry, but we had a lot of fun climbing on the rocks and taking fun pictures. It's like this big circular rock formation a little out from the beach, and it makes a nice, calm pool for people to swim in. We had a lot of fun. It was a WAY long drive, it being at the very most north tip of the island, and us living at the very southern tip. We had a blast though.

Personally i'm feeling fantastic. I haven't felt this good in a long time. Through fasting and prayer, lots of study, i've received a lot of strength from the Lord and i'm making it through these last weeks. I pray we have a good one this week. I love ya tons and i hope you have a good week as well. Don't stress too much. BTW - I would like to know the topic of my homecoming talk. if possible please. Not saying i'm not confident i could do it on a whim but i'd rather be able to think and ponder about it awhile.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

5/30/11

Hello everyone! This past week was kinda bad actually. I had food poisoning on Thursday, then we’re moving into a new apartment. Infact we already did, this morning. It’s BEAUTIFUL!!! It’s overlooking the ocean, has air conditioning, hot water, huge fridge, brand new appliances, all from the states.. I tell ya what it’s amazing.. And! It’s half the price of our other apartment. That took up way too much time so we weren’t able to get tons done. Sadly. I hit kinda a mental wall this past week. I was having a tough time keeping myself going but i received a lot of personal revelation which really helped transform me. I am feeling tons better now and am ready to get some work done. Elder Bharat asked me, is Sister Nicholls going to be your last baptism? I didn’t know how to answer that cause i don’t want it to be but i think it will be. But what a great baptism to end on..

Sister Nicholls gave a talk on Testimony this past week in church and it was awesome. She bore a powerful one and i was way proud of her. Shevorn John is teaching the Young Women’s class now and is doing awesome. I’m really happy with all of these people. Things are going so well for them. We’re having a bit of trouble getting the other leaders (except President Jackson – you gotta meet that guy) to do their jobs. Church was great on Sunday though. No kids peeing on the floor or mental teenagers. Hah.

Mom – just an idea, dad was telling me that you’re putting together a bunch of stuff from my mission. I have a ton of awesome pictures that we can all look at and print out when i get back. So don’t think that all the pictures i’ve sent is it. Haha.

In other news, i’m leaving in the nick of time. Carnival is beginning about a week after i leave. I’m so sick of seeing their “costumes”(really just an excuse to wear lingerie on the streets) and hearing their disgusting music.. That’s one thing i won’t miss about the Caribbean. They’re already starting a bunch of festivities and stuff so the Elders in Kingstown are surrounded by sin.. haha.

I don’t know what else to report on, really. Tell Elder Cox i miss him bad. He is awesome and i’m sure that he was a legit missionary.I hope things are going well at home and i can’t believe things are going so fast. Yes, time is still flying by. Life is good though. Can’t believe i won’t be a missionary for much longer.... i don’t know how to feel about that one.

Monday, May 23, 2011

5/23/11

I really don't have much to say... i don't know why!

Church was crazy yesterday. A child peed her pants during sacrament meeting making a mess everywhere, meanwhile a 16 year old kid with mental problems was just making one set of problems for everybody at church, asking for money, stealing food from the kitchen, etc. It was quite the sunday...

The week was pretty good. We worked really hard and had a lot of great lessons. We found several new people we can start working with. So that's good. Patrick and Natasha's other daughter that's 10 should be baptized in the next few weeks. The branch is doing kinda good. Most people here can't get over the traditional belief that God and Christ are the same person. Few members get the basic doctrines of the church. That's been quite the obstacle to overcome.

Ah. One thing. I love the hymn selection of "A poor wayfaring man of grief." for the sacrament meeting on the 19th. Did you know that was my absolute favorite hymn? You had to know... haha. I'd like to know the topic i'll be speaking on too...

Friday, May 20, 2011

5/16/11

I don't have much to report on this week. Half the island (missionaries that is) is sick and so we had a lot of stuff to do still and didn't get tons done. However Sister Nicholls was baptized on Saturday. We asked her husband (1st counselor in EQ pres.) if he was coming, and he said probably not, that he had something else to do. He didn't want to baptize her either. Kinda weird... but Elder Henderson pretty much made him come to the baptism and actually he performed the confirmation the following sunday. It was great to see Brother Nicholls fulfill his priesthood duties. It was a great weekend in that respect to see her make those covenants with the Lord.

Elder Bharat, my companion, has a really bad cold, another Elder has some weird virus, so we did a lot of splits this week to cover other areas. There is so much potential here in Calliaqua branch.

We were teaching the Brown's last night, and i felt an impression to begin talking about the temple. We taught about it, and brother brown, who is having trouble getting divorced to his previous wife, just lit up. He is way excited to go the temple now, and he told us he's finally going to get the marraige stuff in order so he can get baptized and go to the temple a year later. He really loves his family and wants to get sealed to them. It was a great experience. You should have heard his prayer as we left. Way sincere and we all felt the spirit.

Weird i just talked to you last night. I was telling Elder Winzenried on the phone, it doesn't even feel real! Like i just talked to you but it doesn't feel like it at all. It was fun however and I enjoyed seeing everybody. All the kids are getting way older and i like how Addie thinks that i'm just inside of a computer. haha.

This past week was pretty tough due to transfers, we had to buy the elders a bunch of stuff, do a bunch of errands, carry people to the doctor (missionary is sick), etc. We weren't able to get much done which at the end of the week can be really stressful because you have to report to president your not so good of a week..

We are however excited for this week. We might have a baptism of Sister Nichols. Her husband is in the EQ presidency and she's finally getting baptized. She's been an investigator for years. We also are going to do a lot of finding so that we can see even more people come into the fold later in the transfer.

I don't know what else to report really, i'll answer your questions, haha. Elder Stewart's companion was Elder Jensen. Elder Jensen is from Salt Lake City. Now we have Elder Winzenried with Elder Charles, from Las Vegas and Guyana respectively. There's like 15-20 natives in the mission. Elder Livingston from Wyoming is with Elder Jensen now. It is a sweet zone. I'm excited for it.

It's kinda funny emailing right after you talk to your family... you just run out of things to say. Ooh! One thing i'll report. This morning we gathered as a zone and played cricket on the beach. We got some sweet pictures and had a lot of fun. I love it here!